Electronic incident board

In the event of incidents like fire or collision damage, a fast and coordinated response is of life-saving importance. Increased workloads, limited support tools and a hectic environment increase the risk of delays and operator errors.

RH Marine developed the Rhodium Electronic Incident Board (EIB) application in close cooperation with first-class navies, knowledge centres, crews and training staff. The Rhodium EIB application supports damage control management during emergency situations, and provides a faster and more accurate situational awareness.

Features

Digital General Arrangement Plan

Displaying sensor information

Automatic synchronisation of plot information

Automatic plotting of fire and flooding

Closing conditions

Stability information

Incident Management

Generate damage control measures

Narrative

Messenger

Training mode

Digital General Arrangement Plan

The large multi touch screens showing the General Arrangement Plan (GAP) give a real time, instantaneous and clear overview of the actual damage situation. The GAP shows a detailed view of all decks and their compartments. Vessel attributes like compartment names, compartment identification names (NBCD names; DC Notation), Compartment Information Cards (CIC), fire detectors, door and hatch sensors and many more are presented in layers.

All events are plotted either automatically or manually in the GAP, using customer specific symbols (KN15750, BR2170, RSN standard or other) and tailored procedures. Free scribble allows the operator to add free formatted information intuitively.

Displaying sensor information

When the EIB is interfaced with an AMCS system, the relevant sensor information will be displayed on the GAP. The different sensor types are arranged in separate layers (e.g. fire/smoke, water mist, doors/hatches, bilge levels, etcetera). When a sensor information layer is switched off, then all sensors will be hidden except the sensors that are in alert state. These sensors will always be shown on the GAP, independent of the layer settings.

Automatic synchronisation of plot information

The Rhodium EIB replaces the previous paper incident boards and thereby the requirement for all nodes to plot all information separately. EIB enables all Damage Control personnel to work on the same digital incident board, reducing communication load between plotters and almost entirely eliminating the potential for incorrect and different damage control pictures at separate nodes.

Automatic synchronisation of all incident related information over the different damage stations guarantees a faster and more accurate situational awareness for all parties involved. Notable effects of the EIB are a significant reduction of noise levels, improved internal situational awareness, and better & faster decision making.

Automatic plotting of fire and flooding

The interface with an AMCS system allows for the EIB application, to execute certain actions automatically. When a fire detector is activated, the first stage of the fire symbol is plotted automatically in the compartment in question. The status of the fire symbol is automatically upgraded to a confirmed fire after a 3 minute timer.

When another type of fire detection is received for the same compartment, then the fire symbol is upgraded to a confirmed fire immediately. In case of a confirmed fire, the compartment will be hatched for both fire (in red) and smoke (in black).

Closing conditions

The ship’s closing condition state is vital for damage control and firefighting. It determines the doors and hatches that must be closed. This information is necessary for deciding which attack or evacuation route is best for the current situation. The active closing condition is set by the AMCS.

By activating a certain closing condition, the doors and hatches which must be closed will give an alarm if it opens. All other door and hatch alarms, which are not needed to be closed for the active closing condition, are being suppressed by the AMCS. Before activating a new closing condition, this closing condition can be evaluated.

The doors and hatches that need to be closed but are still open are presented yellow. All yellow indicated doors and hatches needs to be closed before the evaluated closing condition should be turned active.

Stability information

For calculating the stability of the ship, using only the content of all tanks or loads is not enough. The influence of unexpected liquids in the ship, caused by leakages or firefighting water, need to be taken into account as well. These leakages are entered into the EIB application by means of a plot symbol with water levels / times attached to it.

This is either done manually by the EIB operator or automatically when a level sensor reaches its alert state. The water levels are then sent to the Stability Calculator to process the effect of these water levels to the overall stability of the ship. The EIB application displays the stability status as determined by the Stability Calculation application.

Incident Management

In case of multiple incidents, it’s necessary for the operator to be able to manage the varying incidents in the right order and with the right priority. To help him/her with this task, everything related to a certain incident is grouped together.

This means that each incident has its own set of plot symbols attached to it. For each incident, the operator can configure the visible GAP and sensor layers. Each incident also has its own priority setting, to be adjusted by the operator. The top 3 incidents are always shown on top of the menu. New incidents will appear at the top of the incident list.

Generate damage control measures

The Incident Management function generates different measures to combat the incident. These measures can be initiated, stopped, edited or deleted, all independently from each other. An incident is completed when all its measures are completed. Various damage control measures can be generated:

Attack routes

Passage restrictions

Electrical isolation

Boundary cooling

Narrative

The narrative is a written record of what happens on the GAP. As a symbol is plotted or its state is changed, an associated entry is added to the narrative. Changes to the plot symbol, such as moving to different compartment or adding property information, results in its existing narrative entry being updated.

Training mode (optional)

Training mode allows operators to use the system for training purposes. One or more EIB stations can be switched to training mode, in which the EIB will still display the actual sensor information. The operator actions, events and plot symbols on an EIB workstation that is set in training mode are only displayed on other EIB workstations that are also set in training mode.

EIB workstations in training mode show a completely different set of plot symbols and messenger texts. Operational and training modes are strictly separated with the sole exception of sensor alarms: these always display the current operational state. The EIB training mode is easily recognisable and distinct from the EIB normal operational mode.

In training mode, the background colour of the GAP turns blue (instead of the default green) and the word “Training” is added to the title bar of the EIB application. Operator actions are also logged in Training mode and identified by a dedicated training property.

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